United Airlines Apologizes For Accusing Gay Dad Of Inappropriately Touching His Son

By

On Top Magazine Staff

|
May 29, 2017

United Airlines has apologized for
accusing a gay dad of inappropriately touching his foster son on
their flight home to North Carolina.

Henry Amador-Batten, 52, and his
five-year-old son Benjamin were returning home after traveling to
Puerto Rico to say goodbye to Henry's father.

In a Facebook post, his husband, Joel
Amador-Batten, explained that Henry had been detained in
Raleigh-Durham airport after a member of the flight crew complained
that his hand was too close to his son's crotch.

“Tonight my husband was detained
after disembarking a United flight to RDU because a member of the
flight crew made an accusation that my husband's hand/arm laying
across my sleeping son's lap was too close to the 'child's
genitals,'” Joel
wrote. “After being made to feel like a criminal in front of
other passengers as they exited the plane my husband filed a report
of his own mentioning that the male flight attendant that must have
accused him had treated him oddly in flight, and was promptly sent on
his way. This is the icing on the cake for a man who has spent nearly
the last two weeks in Puerto Rico dealing with his father's quick
decline and subsequent death.”

“This is not how anyone deserves to
be treated. This is not something that should have happened in front
of my son. This is not something that anyone should have to worry
about happening to them on a flight just because someone might not
like the looks of them.”

“Our customers should always be
treated with the utmost respect,” the spokesperson wrote. “We
have followed up with the customer directly and we apologize for the
situation.”

In a separate post, the dads thanked
their followers for their support and criticized United. “We will
not keep quiet while you conduct your internal investigation, we will
not give anyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting
our family from accusations of things as disgusting as pedophilia,
and my husband and I will continue to use our own voices, amplified
by the love and support of the massive community that you are all a
part of, to shout as loud as we can that an individual who is the
face of a company, and therefore of its standards and practices,
cannot just accuse someone of something so dreadful as child
molestation without any sort of investigation,” they
wrote.